When Should Retailers Remind Shoppers of Abandoned Carts?

One in five shoppers convert if they’re reminded within an hour

An email reminder to shoppers who have abandoned their online cart can be the catalyst to a quicker conversion. But what’s the right timing?

According to August data from ecommerce website personalization provider Barilliance, the best conversion rate happens when the first retargeting email is sent within an hour.

Barilliance found that if the first triggered email within an hour after shoppers abandoned their cart, it yielded an average conversion rate of 20.3%. In contrast, if the first triggered email was sent after 24 hours, only 12.2% of recipients converted.

The research also looked at conversion rates when a second and third email is sent. Again, sooner was better: Second emails sent after 24 hours performed more than twice as well as those sent after 48 hours.

That doesn’t mean cart abandoners stop converting after the first two days, however. Barilliance also found that if a third email was sent after 72 hours, it still got a sizeable 18.2% conversion rate—higher than average conversion rates for second emails.

These triggered-email conversions represent a big opportunity for digital retailers, as most shopping carts globally are abandoned. Among SaleCycle clients around the world, three-quarters of shopping carts were abandoned during H1 2016, with the highest abandonment rates in Asia-Pacific. Meanwhile, North America was just below the worldwide average at 74.0%.